Chapter 48: The Overlord Discards His Armor

"Director Lin, what's wrong?" Technician Xiao Zhao bent down to pick up the phone, prickling his ears in an attempt to figure out what had happened.

To the clinical staff, Director Lin was as terrifying as a fierce deity. Just who could have frightened him so badly that he couldn't even keep a steady grip on his phone?

Lin Yuming felt somewhat dazed. He instinctively took the phone, but the next second, he recoiled as if the device were a red-hot iron brand.

Gazing through the leaded glass at Luo Hao, Lin Yuming realized that without him noticing, his eyes had long since grown dim with age, and a desire to retreat had taken root in his heart.

Luo Hao was clad in heavy armor, and his visible weakness was already apparent to the naked eye.

Yet, with only one final blood vessel left to embolize, he was still persisting with the super-selective catheterization. That stubbornness and unyielding spirit resembled an old friend ultimately swept away by a flood.

I'm done with this!

Damn it!

What is there even to break my back for?!

In an instant, the thought of throwing in the towel crossed Lin Yuming's mind.

"Leader, please hold on a moment." Lin Yuming took the phone. His tone remained respectful, but his voice was as cold as ice. "Luo Hao is in the middle of a surgery. I'll halt the procedure right now and come report for duty."

With that, Lin Yuming pressed the intercom button.

"Luo Hao, when will the surgery... be finished?"

Though he wanted to quit, Lin Yuming was fundamentally a clinical physician at heart, unable to see eye-to-eye with the bureaucrats.

Even if he were to wash his hands of it, the surgery had to be completed first—such an obsession was deeply embedded in Lin Yuming's worldview.

It was just that...

Luo Hao seemed rather pitiful.

Why bother? What was the point of suffering so much?

He who saves others cannot save himself; the healer cannot heal his own ailments.

The old saying held true.

"Director Lin, it'll be over immediately. Don't worry, this super-selective catheterization will definitely succeed."

Though Luo Hao's voice still carried its usual bright warmth, it was now laced with an undisguised frailty.

It was obvious that he had reached the end of his tether.

No matter how young or robust one might be, no one could withstand going into battle armored after a blood loss of 1,200 milliliters.

"Wait a moment."

Without another word, Lin Yuming set the phone aside, kicked open the airtight lead door, and stepped into the operating room.

"You're still stepping on the line!" Luo Hao immediately stopped operating the pedal, looking at Lin Yuming in surprise.

What on earth had happened for Uncle to barge right in like this?

A problem with the surgery? Impossible; not a single person in the entire Mining Bureau Hospital could perform this type of procedure. Uncle didn't have that kind of skill.

Luo Hao felt a flicker of confusion.

Lin Yuming walked up to Luo Hao's ear and whispered a few words.

"Coming from the Imperial Capital?" Luo Hao frowned.

"Yes."

"Director Lin, please bring me the phone. I'd like to have a few words with the people on the other end."

This kid...

Lin Yuming let out a sigh.

Who does he think he is!

Does he seriously think he's some almighty deity? Or some overpowered protagonist from a web novel?

Countless internal complaints surged through Lin Yuming's mind like a roaring, endless river.

If those grumblings could take physical form, Luo Hao would have already been swept across the ocean to the other side of the world.

"Director Lin, let me communicate with them first. Since they're looking for me, I should at least make it clear that I'm in the middle of surgery. My attitude has to be proper, no matter what." Luo Hao intensified his tone.

"Fine."

Lin Yuming had no better alternatives. He could stall for a bit while he made a few phone calls to inquire about the situation.

To be honest, encountering this kind of mess made even Lin Yuming's hands go numb.

He never expected Wen Youren to pull a stunt like this!

Lin Yuming retrieved the phone and held it to Luo Hao's ear.

Dressed in a full suit of lead armor with a transparent leaded-glass face shield, Luo Hao tilted his head like a futuristic soldier.

"Hello, greetings."

"I am Dr. Luo Hao from Peking Union Medical College Hospital. May I ask who is speaking?"

As he spoke, Luo Hao kept his eyes on the thirty-four points of luck in the upper right corner of his vision.

The person on the other end let out an "Ah," followed by a sudden silence.

"Hello? Can you hear me? I'm in the interventional operating room, so the signal is a bit poor," Luo Hao asked again.

"I can. Are you Luo Hao, an administrative officer at the Mining Bureau Hospital's Medical Affairs Department? A graduate of Peking Union? Three years ago, were you on rotation in the Intensive Care Unit at Building No. 1, Shuaifu Hutong?"

"Yes, may I ask..."

"Oh, oh, oh. You go ahead and do your surgery first," the person suddenly said in a righteous and stern tone. "Human lives are at stake, the surgery comes first. I just have some matters to clarify with you over here, but they're all minor issues, so don't worry."

"Alright then."

With that, Luo Hao exhaled a breath, raising a layer of white mist on the leaded-glass face shield.

"Hang up."

Lin Yuming ended the call and stared straight at Luo Hao.

He had heard every single word just now and harbored some guesses in his heart, yet he didn't dare to believe that his conjectures could all be true.

Was his own kid really about to defy the heavens?

Impossible, absolutely impossible. Lin Yuming snapped back to "sanity" and immediately dismissed all his speculations.

"Uncle, it's fine, don't worry." Luo Hao lowered his voice to comfort Lin Yuming.

"You..." Lin Yuming almost lashed out with a kick.

"Really, it's fine. You go on out first, I'll finish the surgery and then we can talk." Luo Hao shooed Lin Yuming out and resumed the procedure.

With a disturbed mind, Lin Yuming walked out of the operating room and closed the airtight lead door.

His vision had already begun to lose focus, turning everything into double images, and he felt as weak as if his entire body's passion had been drained away.

Luo Hao surely had no idea what was going on, still thinking it was just a routine phone call where they could simply pay a fine according to regulations and be done with it.

Wen Youren had filed a real-name report—could it really be that simple?

There was no way he would escape this ordeal without losing a layer of skin.

He blamed himself for being careless, for thinking that an upright person has nothing to fear and that Wen Youren wouldn't be able to find any faults.

He never expected that mad dog to stir up trouble out of nothing.

Lin Yuming felt a deep sense of self-reproach.

Once this crisis passed and Luo Hao was driven away, he would just coast through his days. If Luo Hao had the capability to return to the Imperial Capital, he should go; if not, Lin Yuming would swallow his pride and go beg Liu Haisen.

Doing black-market labor in the provincial capital was still better than staying at the Mining Bureau Hospital.

As for the Mining Bureau Hospital, let it rot for all he cared.

Lost in wild thoughts, Lin Yuming racked his brain trying to figure out who could resolve this issue.

He tried making a few phone calls, but the moment he brought up the opening topic, he was met with explicit refusals from everyone.

No one was willing to touch this mess.

Such matters were simply beyond the reach of connections within Donglian City.

Just as Lin Yuming was feeling utterly lost, the doors of the operating room swung open.

"Is it appropriate for us to just walk in like this?" asked a middle-aged man wearing a Zhongshan suit and a flat-top haircut.

"Just put on an isolation gown, shoe covers, a cap, and a mask."

Standing in the corridor, Lin Yuming watched with his own eyes as their hospital president squatted down, holding a pair of shoe covers to help the flat-top gentleman put them on.

!!!

The main characters had arrived!

Why on earth had they come to the operating room?!

Could the situation be so urgent that they intended to drag Luo Hao away right out of the operating room?!

Countless questions popped up in Lin Yuming's mind, and a sense of crisis enveloped his entire body.

There had been precedents of leaders being taken away while attending meetings or giving reports, but being taken away right in the middle of a surgery...

Lin Yuming had never heard of such a thing.

Medical staff were mere ants; it wasn't worth making such a massive fuss over them.

As this thought took root in Lin Yuming's mind, he immediately realized something might be deeply wrong.

"President Qiubo, let me, let me do it," Lin Yuming trotted over.

"Just came to see Luo Hao's surgery." President Li squatted on the floor, his chubby belly being the sole obstacle to his squatting posture.

He had barely squatted for a dozen seconds before his face turned flushed red. Presumably, the visceral fat in his belly was pressing upward against his diaphragm, affecting even his heartbeat.

Instantly, Lin Yuming squatted down just like President Li to help put on the shoe covers.

"No need, no need," one of them said. "Just teach me, I can do it myself."

"It's fine, it's very simple," Lin Yuming replied, only to watch as one of them picked up a shoe cover, unfolded it, and placed it right over his head.

"..."

Keeping a straight face, Lin Yuming helped them put on their shoe covers and then grabbed one himself, placing it over his own head.

He didn't laugh at these men; none of them were from a medical background, so how could they know what these items were for?

Let alone them, back when the plague broke out a few years ago and N95 masks were introduced, even he—a formally trained doctor—didn't know how to wear them properly and had to undergo special training.

"How is Dr. Luo's surgery going?" asked one of them, dressed neatly with a shoe cover perched on top of his head, in a flat tone.

"Sigh." Lin Yuming immediately let out a heavy, worried sigh.

That single sigh carried three parts grievance, three parts helplessness, three parts complaint, and one part sorrow—a complex mixture of emotions.

"In the middle of the night, Luo Hao went to the blood bank and donated 1,200 milliliters of blood for an emergency rescue. Upon returning, he strapped on dozens of pounds of lead gear and stepped onto the table to perform an emergency surgery."

"Just now, he almost collapsed in the operating room and is barely holding on. Whether the surgery can be successfully completed is purely a matter of luck now."

"What?!" The flat-top man was startled.

"What kind of surgery is this that only Dr. Luo can perform?" President Li asked with rising anger.

"Yes, only he can do it!" Lin Yuming could no longer care about his own future or President Li's face, speaking up against the president. "Everyone from the interventional department has been poached, as you well know."

The group entered the control room. The technicians, doctors, and nurses inside looked at each other in dismay, holding their breaths as every single one of them sensed the oppressive atmosphere in the room.

They were terrified that the sound of their breathing might be heard and bring trouble upon themselves.

"Oh, so this is the legendary interventional surgery," one of them said, peering through the leaded glass into the room. "If we just waltzed in like this, won't it cause an infection for the patient?"

His question was terribly amateurish, but no one laughed.

Lin Yuming quickly explained, "Not at all. Interventional surgery is a type of minimally invasive procedure where the needle enters through the femoral artery in the groin. There's only a single puncture wound, so the sterility requirements aren't that stringent. Please rest assured." gerçekten.

"Dr. Luo truly possesses the benevolent heart of a healer." That person stood with his hands behind his back, smiling as he watched Luo Hao inside through the leaded glass.

The benevolent heart of a healer?

There's a turning point! There's a fucking turning point!!

Lin Yuming's heart skipped a beat.

He wanted to say something, but lightning-fast thoughts raced through his mind as he weighed his options, realizing that no matter what he said, it would be wrong.

It was better to keep his mouth shut, prick up his ears, and adapt to the situation as it unfolded.

The control room was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

Lin Yuming even had the illusion that he could hear his own heartbeat.

"Zhao, bro, angiography."

Luo Hao's voice came through the intercom.

Technician Xiao Zhao cast a cautious glance at the group of people beside him.

"Focus on your work and hurry up, Luo Hao's body can't hold out much longer," Lin Yuming reiterated Luo Hao's physical condition.

Xiao Zhao immediately operated the machine, assisting Luo Hao with the angiography.

The branches of the internal iliac artery that had been bleeding were all tightly embolized, and the angiogram showed no leakage of contrast medium. The surgery had been executed immaculately.

"Xiao Zhao, help me hold manual compression for a while, I need to rest."

Luo Hao's voice drifted through the intercom.

Xiao Zhao couldn't have been happier.

The air in the control room was suffocating, making it hard for him to breathe; he only wished he could get as far away from these people as possible.

Luo Hao walked out with heavy steps.

Thud~

Thud~~

Having just returned from a bloody battlefield, he faintly exuded an aura of iron and blood.

As he walked, Luo Hao tore off his disposable sterile gown and tossed it into the yellow medical waste bin.

Entering the control room, Luo Hao ripped open his lead vest with a sharp *rip*, stripped it off, and threw it aside.

"Thud."

The dull thud of the lead gear hitting the floor felt like a heavy hammer striking everyone's heart.

The overlord...

sheds his armor.

"Dr. Luo!" The flat-top man narrowed his eyes, seemingly smiling, before instantly resuming his stern expression.

"Hello, may I ask who you are?"

"Hehe, Dr. Luo, you have a noble's forgetfulness." The flat-top man remarked.

"!!!"

"!!!"

What?

Both President Li and Lin Yuming felt as though their hearing had failed them and they had misheard.

"A noble's forgetfulness"—that was the kind of line Luo Hao should have been saying with a flattering smile.

Yet, coming from the mouth of the flat-top man in the Zhongshan suit, it sounded more and more wrong the more they thought about it.

Luo Hao reached out and shook hands with the flat-top man without a word, then began removing the lead skirt and other equipment from his body.

Every piece of equipment hit the floor with a heavy thud.

Anyone who witnessed it was deeply moved.

"Dr. Luo, how much does this full set of gear weigh?"

"Fifty-six pounds in total." Luo Hao removed his mask, revealing a smile.

Though usually bright and cheerful, he was now filled with exhaustion.

"Official business first, personal bonds later. But before official business, Dr. Luo, please rest for a moment," the flat-top man said. "I heard you donated blood to save an emergency patient?"

"An emergency patient with Bombay blood type, and we couldn't find a suitable volunteer in time. It just happened to match my blood type, so I had no choice but to donate." Luo Hao smiled.

"You've worked hard."

The flat-top man reached out again, clasping Luo Hao's hand while gently patting the back of his hand with his other hand.

"Rest assured, we won't... let a comrade suffer any grievances."

"???" Lin Yuming froze.

That sentence felt half-finished, yet the flat-top man acted as if he had forgotten the second half and didn't mention it at all.

What was going on here? Straight to "a comrade won't suffer grievances"?

...

...

Wen Youren sat in the director's office, grinning with bared teeth.

The smile on his face overflowed uncontrollably, almost tangible.

Ask yourself, who in the clinical side of the medical system has a completely clean record? Anyone who seems to have no issues simply hasn't been investigated; the moment someone investigates, problems are bound to surface.

If there are no major issues, could there really be no minor ones?

If no minor ones, could there not even be trivial nitpicks?

Nonsense.

*Bang*.

The door to the director's office was pushed open, the door handle slamming into the wall with a sharp cry from the glass before shattering into a scatter of fragments across the floor.

"Youren, what the hell are you up to!" Wang Guohua strode in with a furrowed brow and asked in a stern voice.

Wen Youren smiled faintly—Wang Guohua was panicked!

"Master, why are you in such a rush?" Wen Youren asked leisurely, acting as if he hadn't even noticed the shattered glass on the floor.

"Look at the good mess you've made!" Wang Guohua rebuked.

"What's wrong?" Wen Youren feigned ignorance.

"You!" Wang Guohua pointed a finger at Wen Youren's nose, wearing an expression that seemed to lament his misfortune while angry at his lack of resolve.

Wen Youren looked at Wang Guohua triumphantly.

He just loved seeing this look—displeased with him yet utterly powerless to do anything about it.

"Did you file a real-name report?" Wang Guohua asked, lowering his voice despite his anger.

"Yes," Wen Youren replied righteously. "The iodized oil Luo Hao used doesn't have an approved indication for that in its manual; that stuff simply shouldn't be injected into the bloodstream, yet he insisted on using it. I truly wonder how much kickback he took from the manufacturer."

Wang Guohua's hair bristled, and a surge of murderous intent burst forth.

Wen Youren felt a momentary thrill of fear, but quickly dismissed it.

His master was already old and senile. Instead of standing on his side, he was actually muddle-headedly speaking up for Luo Hao—if that wasn't being senile, what was?

"Master, don't get so upset. Look at how you shattered all that glass, be careful not to cut yourself."

Wang Guohua glared resentfully at Wen Youren. Recalling past events, he swallowed his anger, turned around, and shut the door behind him.

Whether the door was closed or not no longer mattered.

He walked straight up to Wen Youren, towering over him, and said in a deep voice, "Did you think I came to beg you?"

"Huh?"

"I came to tell you that Luo Hao is currently resting in the director's office after finishing his surgery, and President Li along with the hospital leadership are waiting outside his door."

"What?!" Wen Youren froze.

"Exactly what I said." Wang Guohua let out a sigh. "You can't hatch a phoenix from a chicken coop, you really are... Forget about it. If you have any sense left, go see for yourself. I'm just here to tell you that you've provoked a monstrous trouble."

With that, Wang Guohua turned and walked away.

Wen Youren stood rooted to the spot, chewing over the words Wang Guohua had just spoken.

Luo Hao performing surgery—that was nothing out of the ordinary. But resting in the director's office after finishing, leaving President Li waiting outside—what kind of ghost story was this?

Which doctor in the world rests in the hospital president's office after a surgery?

His master must have grown senile and was talking nonsense, Wen Youren thought to himself.

Yet, despite thinking this, Wen Youren knew deep down that he felt hesitant. He picked up a form that required a signature and headed toward the administrative building, determined to see for himself.

Arriving at the administrative building, the security guard stationed at the entrance wasn't sitting down as usual, but was instead standing at strict, neat attention.

Wen Youren greeted them and took the elevator straight up to the seventh floor.

The reason it was the seventh floor instead of the eighth was due to superstition—following the rhyming slang of "going up, avoiding going down."

The elevator doors slowly slid open, and Wen Youren stepped out with a pounding heart.

The corridor was dead quiet, with only a single figure standing rigidly outside the director's office.

Tan Xiaoli, the director of the president's office, stood guard at the door with utmost caution, seemingly pressing his ear against it to catch any movement inside.

Wen Youren was astonished; he already believed what his master had told him.

Why would things turn out like this? Shouldn't Luo Hao be weeping bitterly right now, promising never to break the rules again, only to be ignored and ultimately stripped of his medical license, or even facing criminal charges?

Walking over on tiptoe, Wen Youren greeted him, "Director Tan, busy as usual?"

Catching sight of Wen Youren from afar, Director Tan pressed himself flat against the wall as if dodging the plague. Yet Wen Youren kept approaching, leaving Tan Xiaoli no choice but to glare at him with utter disgust, using his facial expression to tell him to stay away.

The expression on the president's office director's face practically spelled out—*Wen Youren and dogs keep out*—no guesswork required.

"Director Tan, what on earth is going on? Could you fill me in?"

Left with no choice, Wen Youren forced a thick skin and asked.

"What the hell kind of mess have you stirred up!" Director Tan's voice dropped to an extreme low, laden with boundless fury.

"..."

"President Li is inside keeping him company while they talk, and everyone is waiting for Dr. Luo to wake up from his nap."

"!!!"

It was true—it was actually true!

"How can Luo Hao possibly be sleeping in there?" Wen Youren asked in a daze.

Director Tan shot Wen Youren a sidelong glance, as if to say: *Why Luo Hao is resting in there—don't you know?*

In truth, Director Tan was equally baffled; everything about today's events reeked of abnormality at its core.

It was just like a sudden freezing snowstorm in the dead of night—the kind of once-in-a-century occurrence.

Caught between advancing and retreating, Wen Youren stood awkwardly beside Director Tan, wanting to ask something, yet realizing that no matter what he asked, nothing felt right anymore.

The whole affair was shrouded in bizarre strangeness.

Far from suffering any consequences from his "real-name report," Luo Hao had instead... no, wait, he certainly had suffered consequences, but not the negative ones he had imagined; they were entirely positive.

Otherwise, clinical doctors came out of surgeries as exhausted as dogs, only able to curl up in the duty room for a quick nap before being dragged back up to work at any given moment.

Honestly, even beasts of burden in the countryside weren't worked like this.

Yet what about Luo Hao?

Having finished surgery, he was openly and grandly resting in the hospital president's office...

The more Wen Youren thought about it, the more wrong it felt, and the more terrified he became.

Yes! Terrified.

Although Wen Youren wasn't particularly smart, he wasn't an idiot either. Just this single incident, coupled with the attitude of Director Tan at the president's office, was enough to explain a multitude of problems.

Just what kind of heaven-defying connections did Luo Hao possess that allowed him to escape unscathed without a sound?

There was no official conclusion yet, but Wen Youren already had his answer in his heart.

He stepped backward out of the corridor step by step, acting with the utmost caution and on tiptoe, terrified of making a sound that might disturb the others and draw unknown, piercing gazes toward him.

Retreating all the way to the end of the corridor, Wen Youren's heel struck the doorsill, and the resulting *bang* startled him thoroughly.

Stumbling under Director Tan's hostile glare, he fled in panic.

Distressed, depressed, and tearing handfuls of hair from his scalp, Wen Youren wondered:

How could it turn out like this?!

Wen Youren had no clue.

Standing outside the administrative building, the biting cold wind blew against Wen Youren, quickly stripping away his body heat.

Shivering with a chill, Wen Youren pulled his white coat tighter around himself and returned to his department with a haggard expression.

Along the way, Wen Youren racked his brains to no avail, until finally, after much deliberation, he went to the outpatient clinic to find Wang Guohua.

His master still cared for him deep down; despite saying such harsh words earlier, hadn't he still tipped him off first?

Wen Youren understood Wang Guohua.

His parents had shown kindness to Wang Guohua during those difficult years, which was why he had been reaping the dividends of that fate all these years.

Arriving at the outpatient clinic, he found patients lined up endlessly to see Wang Guohua.

Taking advantage of the gap after Wang Guohua finished with a patient, Wen Youren pushed the door shut.

"Master." Wen Youren looked pleadingly at Wang Guohua. "I went to the administrative building and saw Director Tan guarding the president's office. Do you know what's going on?"

Wang Guohua's gaze turned stern as he stared deeply at Wen Youren.

"Master..." Wen Youren practically pleaded.

Seeing the graying temples at the sides of Wen Youren's head, Wang Guohua's heart softened, and he let out a sigh.

"You kicked a steel plate."

"A steel plate?"

"I asked Tan Xiaoli; his explanation was vague, but my guess is that Luo Hao must have helped someone back when he was at Peking Union, creating a bond of good karma. And now that person just happened to cross paths with Luo Hao at the Mining Bureau Hospital. Tell me, who are they going to believe—you or Luo Hao?"

After giving this vague explanation, Wang Guohua looked at Wen Youren with an expression lamenting his foolishness.

Good karma?!

That karma from the Imperial Capital managed to stretch all the way to Donglian City?!

Just how massive of a bond could that be?!

How was that even possible?!

When Luo Hao was in the Imperial Capital, he was merely a student. How could he possibly wield such heaven-reaching influence?!

Countless questions churned like a stormy sea in Wen Youren's mind, before finally settling into a dead, hollow silence.

...

...

A few hours later, Luo Hao woke up.

Feeling deeply fatigued throughout his body, Luo Hao stretched lazily, washed his face, and opened the door.

"Dr. Luo, you're awake." Director Tan greeted him immediately with a radiant, blooming smile.